It’s a family affair

Parental involvement in a child’s learning is a more powerful contributor to achievement than family background, size of family or even the level of parental education. What’s more, during the primary years, it has more impact on attainment than the school itself.

However, there are almost two million families in the UK without internet access in their home. This limits the extent to which parents can support their children’s learning and development, and puts those children at a considerable disadvantage in today’s online world.

Enabling families to learn together

The Campaign for Learning works to create opportunities and provide support for learning in families. It's planning to develop a dynamic new programme to help motivate families to learn together using new media and digital technology.

With support from Nominet Trust, Digital Families is a digital inclusion and safeguarding action research programme, which will combine expertise in engaging and supporting families in learning with ICT support for schools.

Essential insights about specific needs

The project is currently evaluating the effectiveness of different approaches to children and families – particularly those from black and ethnic minority backgrounds – associated with four schools. This initial research will provide essential information about the skills, knowledge, resources and equipment needed by these families to safely access the internet and to use it effectively to support children’s learning.

It is hoped the insights gained can be used to train and support 40 further schools to deliver the Digital Families programme, including ongoing peer-to-peer support. The eventual aim is to reach 14,000 families, enabling them all to benefit from access to essential hardware and connectivity at home.

Rolling out the benefits to all

Delivered by The Campaign for Learning in partnership with the e-Learning Foundation, the new training and resources will be rolled out across England through the National Family Learning Network. This will enable anyone working with families to create their own Digital Families programme and help even more learners of all ages to benefit from digital inclusion.